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by Melissa Brunner

If your child went missing, would you want police to first sit down and extensively question you, find out your psychological state, make sure he or she wasn't hiding under the bed, suggest perhaps you forgot you left the child at grandma's house? Or would you want them to get a description and immediately start searching for your son or daughter?

I would think most would say they wouldn't want any delay in starting a search.

It's why the nation held its collective breath as a foil balloon sailed over Colorado, and why I am upset by the allegation that the whole thing was a hoax in hopes of landing a reality television show.

The problem isn't just that the false reports tie up law enforcement when their time could be better spent elsewhere. Perhaps the greater damage comes in our reaction to reports of similar incidents later.

We want authorities to take reports of crimes and people who are missing or in danger seriously. Each time there is a false report, it's no wonder that, not just authorities, but all of us start to get jaded. We hear a report that a teenager has been abducted and we wonder if it really happened, or if the teen just ran away. We hear a claim of a sexual assault and we wonder if that's the whole story. Locally and nationally, there have been claims of both such incidents made falsely.

Unfortunately, in the past, there hasn't been much punishment for these false claims. I, for one, believe there should be some consequence because, right, the price is paid by those who experience hesitation when they truly are in need of help.